


Subject

by Interupptingmoose218



Category: Maximum Ride - James Patterson
Genre: Ari - Freeform, Bird-kids, Cages, Experiments, Fang - Freeform, Gasman - Freeform, Gazzy - Freeform, Jeb - Freeform, Kids, Maximum Ride - Freeform, Nudge - Freeform, School, Science, Swearing, Vomit, Wings, angel - Freeform, blind, cruel - Freeform, dog-crates, iggy - Freeform, lab, max - Freeform, sick, whitecoats
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-25 09:36:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6189367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interupptingmoose218/pseuds/Interupptingmoose218
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The flock's life as children in the school before Jeb helped them escape.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I was thrown not very gently into my dog-crate. The whitecoat slammed the door angrily, glaring at me holding his bleeding hand. I smiled smugly at him. Fang scurried to the edge of his cage, and I crawled to meet him. 

"What did you do?" He asked, his eyes full of childish curiosity. He was only 7, so were Iggy and I. Gazzy was 2, Nudge was 4. 

"I bit him," I stated matter of factly. Fang's eyes widened in astonishment and I couldn't help but smile. "He deserved it," I replied. I curled up on the floor of my cage, and was about to close my eyes when the door opened again. A white-coat walked in. I heard Gasman gasp, and then shuffling as he scurried to the very corner of his cage. But it was only Jeb, with our dinner. He knelt in front of my cage, wrapping his hand around one of the bars. 

"What you did to Reilly wasn't very nice Max," Jeb scolded me, Reilly must have been the white-coat I bit. I crossed my arms over my chest, turned my head up and huffed. 

"He wasn't very nice to me," I replied. "He made me run until I puked today," I snapped. Jeb didn't say anything. He handed us our dinner, as waited paitently for us to finish which didn't take long. We all launched ourselves on the food like a pack of hyenas. Jeb then took us out one at a time, for a short walk and a bathroom break. We had our bathroom breaks down to a schedule, like we could control what times we had to go. Sometimes it was hard, and since we were only little we often had 'accidents' when this happened the white-coats were not happy with us. Yelling at us, calling us freaks, useless, and other awful names. Jeb was different, he was understanding. Cleaning it up, telling us it was okay, that it wasn't our fault, that we were only little. I liked Jeb, and by like I meant didn't hate. Sometimes if we were good during the day, he snuck us out at night and let us fly around the lab. Just our room, but it was tall enough and large enough for us to stretch our tiny wings. It was awesome. Only Fang, Iggy and I could fly but it was awesome. When I returned, almost everyone was curled up to go to sleep. I to curled up on the floor of my cage and closed my eyes. 

"Goodnight guys," I said. Iggy, Nudge and Fang replied, from Gazzy I just got a grunt. I closed my eyes, but was interrupted from sleep from Iggy's whisper. 

"Max?" He asked. 

"Yeah Ig?" I replied. 

"Do you think we'll be here forever?" He asked. I didn't have an answer. 

"I don't know, probably. We don't have parents to come get us," I said. I heard Iggy's breath hitch and I knew he was crying. Iggy cried a lot, the white-coats hated it, calling it a 'defect' I liked it. It meant Iggy had emotions. "But maybe Iggy. Maybe one day we'll be able to fly outside, with grown-ups, and toys, and dogs. Dogs like big fields, it's okay Ig, we won't be here forever," I said. Iggy didn't say anything. 

"I hope," I muttered to myself under my breath as I felt hot tears of my own fall down my cheeks. I buried my face in my wing and sobbed.


	2. Chapter 2

It was early when the white-coats came to get us. The door opened illuminating our small room with light from outside. There were three of them flanked on each side by three Erasers. I felt scared, the white-coats never had Erasers with them, never. The Erasers weren't allowed to free roam the lab, at least I didn't think so. One of the Erasers looked at us, his eyes blazing with hunger. Another literally licked his lips. They weren't human, they had turned 'wolf' or as Nudge called it 'wolfy' The white-coats lifted our cages with a grunt and loaded us onto large carts side by side and we were wheeled out of our room into the stink and blinding light of the School. The Gasman lay curled in a corner of his cage, his small brown eyes shut tightly. Fang wasn't saying anything, neither was Iggy. Nudge was trying hard not to cry. I grabbed the bars of our cage and watched as we were pushed further and further into the depths of the School. I already knew where we were going, and I to was trying not to cry. Today was.. well it didn't really have a name but we called it run. Simple, short, to the point. I knew I was right and felt a deep feeling of dread when we were pushed through a large set of double doors and outside into the cool autumn air. They took us over to the track, They lined us up, 6 lanes, 6 of us. I looked to my left and noticed a new boy he to had wings, though his were like none I had ever seen before. They were bright blue and seemed to glow in the sun's reflection. He looked a little bit older than me, so I assumed he was 9 or 10. His eyes were red from crying, but he had a straight brave face. 

"I'm Max," I said, his head flew around to face me, I didn't think he knew I was here. He blinked a couple of times and opened his mouth as if to say something then he would shake his head and close it. Finally he spoke, his voice was shaky and uneasy as if he hadn't used it in a while. 

"I'm Icarus," He said. I didn't smile at him, there was no reason to. I turned away from him. The Erasers had lined up behind us. Mine was a huge beast covered in pitch black fur that towered over my cage. Icarus's Eraser was even larger with snow white fur, it's massive muscles rippled under it's fur as it stretched. Fang's Eraser to the right of me was a deep brown, the color of chocolate, I didn't know how I knew that. I'd never seen nor eaten chocolate. Iggy's Eraser was grey, the color of our cages. I couldn't see Nudge's or Gasman's Eraser though I knew they were huge and ugly smelly beasts. Fang's Eraser lifted it's head to the sky and barked, they were getting impatient, they were hungry. 

"Good luck," I turned my head when I heard Icarus's voice. I nodded to him in thanks. His Eraser smacked his cage with a huge paw making it rattle, Icarus jumped. 

"No talking!" It growled, it's voice was deep and terrifying sending shivers down my spine. The Erasers looked up excitedly when a White-coat stood in front of us and began to speak. 

"You know the rules." He assured us and sadly it was true. "There's only 1. No flying, you fly you die," He barked. I know cheerful right. He stepped of the track and the Eraser's lowered into a running position, Fang's placed a massive foot on top of his cage ready to leap over it and break into a run. It's ugly claws tightened against the bars in anticipation. The white-coat stepped of the track, and another pressed a button making our cage doors spring open. We were out of the cage and running down the track before they had opened all the way, a split second later a whistle was heard followed by a series of loud thunks as the Eraser's leaped over our cages and landed on the track. My feet pounded against the pavement but I could hear the hideous clicking of Eraser claws behind me and getting closer fast. I heard a scream and looked to my left, to this day I wish I hadn't. 

The Eraser had caught Icarus, he had been to slow. The Eraser grabbed one of his legs and he fell hard and fast, I heard the crack of his nose against the concrete. I saw him begin to get up but he was to slow the Eraser opened his mouth, for a split second his horrid yellow teeth gleamed in the sunlight before they dove down into Icarus's back, he fell limp his beautiful blue wings flopped to the pavement. The Eraser tore into him, blood flew everywhere staining his white coat red in places. Crying now I forced myself faster ignoring the tears streaming down my face, my racing heart, and the searing pain through my legs. I didn't look behind me, I didn't need to. I knew what was there, I could picture it perfectly. The massive black beast thundering after me, it's powerful legs propelling it closer and closer, it's greedy eyes shining with hunger. More tears streamed from my eyes as I heard a horrifying howl of victory come from behind me. The finish line was growing close fast, but not fast enough I thought as my small legs hammered against the ground each step sending pain coursing through my sore legs. I didn't look to my right, I couldn't, I couldn't let anything break my concentration, couldn't let anything slow me down not even a little bit. Finally I reached the finish line and leaped across it collapsing in a pitiful heap on the other side sobbing. I looked up and saw Iggy and Fang do the same, Nudge was coming but she was slowing, her Eraser gaining. My heart seemed to stop when I realized she might not make it, she did though. She leaped across it just as her Eraser snapped at her legs. Gasman was the only one left. They had given him a pup, just a child Eraser like himself. The pup was fast but got distracted easily and slowed often only to realize it had slowed down and it had to regain it's speed again. Meanwhile Gasman remained at the same speed the whole time, he was panting, and sobbing when he finally reached the finish line. Jeb walked over to us. 

"Congratulations guys," He said with a smile. A smile! How could you smile at a time like this, Iggy saw his expression and began to cry and yell. 

"How can you smile!" He howled. "We just had to run for our lives! How can you smile!? How can you do this to us!?" He sobbed. Jeb walked over to him and attempted to touch him but Iggy slapped his hand away. A white-coat came up to punish Iggy but Jeb held his hand up. 

"Ig," He said, I felt anger rise in my chest when he used our nickname for him, I could tell Iggy felt the same way. "I know you feel that way, but you don't understand_" He started but Iggy understood. 

"Oh I Understand!" He howled. "You Guys Are Sick!" He cried looking at the other white-coats now. "Sick. We're Kids! just Kids! Just kids..." He broke up and began to cry harder, I walked over and rubbed his back. 

"You guys are special. You don't know it now, but someday you will save the world," Jeb said still wearing that smile. I wanted to slap it off him, but I didn't. I just held Iggy against me while he cried and ignored Jeb because I knew that if I looked at him now I would hurt him, and then they would punish me, really bad. So I didn't.


	3. Chapter 3

Jeb came in the next day with food, it was the first time we had eaten since we had to run from the Erasers, this time he was followed by his son. Ari, he was only three, with wide curious eyes, and blonde hair. I didn't eat, I couldn't give Jeb the satisfaction despite my screaming stomach.

"Max," Jeb started, his voice sounded hard almost criticizing, I prepared myself for a lecture. But he didn't give me one. "I'm sorry," He said, his voice was softer now, his eyes glinted in pity. And I felt bad about being so mad at him. "I'm sorry about yesterday, it wasn't my idea, it wasn't my fault. I didn't think Icarus would actually.." He stopped. 

"You don't get to say his name," I snapped, Jeb's eyes seemed hurt for a minute but he regained himself. 

"Just eat Maximum. You need your strength here," He paused as if wondering what to say, Ari's large eyes flickered between us with large curiosity. "I'm sorry, about what I said yesterday. I didn't mean to upset you or Iggy. Really I didn't. But it's true Max. There's a reason to all of this," He said. I took a small bite of my sandwich my eyes never leaving his. Fang who was next to my crate was watching us silently eating his small dinner. 

"Jeb. You're not the one who has to run until they puke, or get poked with needles all day," I said the anger in my voice surprised me. 

"I know sweetie," He said. I wanted to cringe at the name. "But i'm going to get you out," He said, I stopped eating mid-bite and looked at him. He was looking down at Ari now. "I'm going to help you guys, I have a house ready, for all 6 of you. I just need to get you there. But I can't yet, I just can't. Just a little bit longer sweetheart, just a little bit longer," He said. At first I didn't believe him, but from the look on the flock's faces I didn't say anything about it. 

"6?" I questioned because last time I checked there were only 5 of us. Jeb nodded his mouth lifting into a slight smile. 

"Yeah, yesterday we've created a new member to your flock. She's just a baby now but she'll grow up," Jeb said. Iggy looked at him in wonder. 

"What's her name?" He asked, his small voice full of awe. 

"Angel," Jeb replied. "Her name is Angel," I couldn't help the smile. I knew I shouldn't be smiling because in reality they now had someone else to torture and she was just a baby. But I did I smiled, because my family and I were alive, there was another one of us, and we were going to get out, we weren't going to be here forever. Deep down I always thought Jeb never really cared about us, just wanted us to be healthy but I guess I was wrong. Because only someone who loves someone risks so much to save them. Jeb must love us, that must be it. That's why I was smiling I told myself, because through all this, even in Hell. I was loved. And it made me happy, for one of the first times in my life I was happy, and I couldn't hide my smile. 

"Are you going to adopt us?" Nudge asked quietly, one hand around her crate, her eyes huge and full of wonder. Jeb smiled slightly at her, the look he flashed her looked familiar. I didn't know how at first but then I realized where I had seen it. It was look the dad's always gave their children on the television. 

"Yeah sweetie, I suppose I will," Jeb said. Nudge didn't say anything, but tears began to fall down her cheeks into her shirt leaving dark wet spots. She hiccuped and turned her head away from Jeb. 

"Goodnight guys," Jeb said turning to go and taking Ari by the hand. 

"Want stay," Ari protested. Jeb sighed. . 

"No," Jeb said sharply. "We need to go, you need to go to bed and Daddy needs to get back to work," Jeb said leading Ari toward the door. 

"Want stay!" Ari said, yelling now. Jeb stopped and looked down at his son. 

"Fine," Jeb almost snapped. Ari looked taken aback but didn't say anything. "I'll come get you when i'm done with work," He said and walked out locking the door behind him and leaving Ari with us. Ari looked at us, and made his way to Nudge's cage. 

"Alright?" He asked, his small voice sounded worried. Nudge hiccuped and nodded but refused to look at Ari. So he moved to Iggy's crate. 

"Ig," He said. Iggy just looked at him. "Brought toys," He stated. "Seem bored," He said and he took off the small blue backpack he was wearing and set it on the ground in front of us. Iggy looked at it in wonder. "Shhhh," Ari said looking up at us and bringing his finger to his lips. "Can't tell," He said. We nodded in understanding. Ari produced small plastic trucks from his bag and handed them to us through the bars. The Gasman looked at his in wonder, he'd never seen a toy before. We'd seen them, but never had the chance to use them. 

"Thanks Ari," Fang said. I nodded in agreement. Ari beamed up at us. 

"Welcome," He said with a smile. 

"Food too," He said reaching into his bag one more time and revealing a package of cupcakes. Iggy's eyes widened beside me, mine did to. We'd never had cupcakes before. Never ever. He handed one to each of us, The Gasman squealed and tore into his. Fang looked at his and sniffed it carefully. 

"It safe," Ari promised us. Fang looked down at him, before hesitantly taking a bite. He swallowed and his eyes widened before stuffing the rest of it in his mouth with a happy sigh. Iggy did the same. I didn't, I took little bites savoring the sweet rich flavor, I licked the frosting off first, the rainbow sprinkles crunching as I chewed slowly. Then came the cupcake, I too sighed happily as I ate it. Ari reached up his small hand. 

"Take wrappers," He said. "Can't know," He said. We all handed him the paper. Otherwise they would find out and he would get in serious trouble and I really didn't want that for him. 

"Juice," He said and handed each of us a juice box of grape juice. We drank thirstily, we hadn't had anything to drink since yesterday and it was so sweet, like nothing i'd ever had before. 

"More?" Fang asked looking down at Ari. Ari nodded with a smile and handed three more to each of us, we drank those quickly to. 

"Thanks Ari. So much," I said. Ari beamed and nodded. 

"Wings," Ari said pointing at Fang. Fang smiled and unfurled one of his dark wings. We didn't see Ari very often but we knew that he was fascinated with our wings. He loved to look at them, and seemed in awe at them. With a smile Fang gently slipped his wing through the bars of his cage and lent it down slightly so it was at Ari's height. Ari's eyes widened in wonder and he stepped closer. Fang chuckled. 

"You can touch it. It's okay," Fang said. If possible Ari's smile grew as he extended his arm and ran his fingers gently through Fang's dark feathers. Fang sighed happily, making Ari giggle. 

"Feel good?" Ari asked sweetly, Fang nodded with a smile. "Soft," Ari stated looked at the feathers intently. Fang chuckled. 

"ARI!" A voice boomed. Ari jumped, and Fang's wing flew behind his back in record speed. We all slid our trucks behind us fast. A white-coat stomped over, Ari looked terrified. "What do you think you're doing young man?" He asked, his voice was hard and angry. Ari looked like he was about to cry. "Your not allowed to touch them! They're our prized experiments, this isn't a petting zoo!" He snapped. I felt anger rise in my chest at his words. 

" 'm sorry," Ari muttered suddenly fascinated at the floor. The white-coat ignored him. 

"Come on!" He said grabbing Ari's hand. "Let's go find your father," He said dragging Ari toward the door. Ari looked back at us his eyes filled with tears that he refused to let fall. He was tough. I mouthed 'sorry' to him, he didn't say anything. And soon the white-coat slammed the door plunging us into darkness. Fortunately we could see in the dark. 

We sat for a little while all of us playing silently with our new posessions. When I heard Iggy whine from beside me, I looked up at me. 

"What's the matter Ig?" I asked. He looked up at me, his eyes shone with worry. 

"Potty," He muttered blushing. 

"Me to," Fang's voice piped up. Then I too realized that I had to go, it must have been the 4 juice-boxes we drank. I suddenly found myself envying The Gasman, who wore diapers and could go whenever he wanted. Iggy stood and waddled around his cage in a circle one hand in-between his legs. 

"I need to go bad," Fang practically whined. Then I knew it was bad. Fang never complained, ever. 

"Me to," Iggy said. Nudge was asleep, I could hear her snores and light breathing from where I sat. 

"Should I yell for Jeb?" I asked. Fang shook his head. 

"No," He said. "We'll get in trouble," He said. 

"But you have to go," I said. 

"Yeah I know. I can wait, or..." he stopped. I already knew what he was about to say. But I really really didn't want to have an accident. After that we sat in silence for a long while, probably about an hour when I heard Iggy quietly crying. I looked over at him, and saw the dark spot on his pants. 

"Oh Ig," I said. This just made him cry harder. Fang was sitting, with one hand between his legs. Finally Jeb came in. 

"What's the matter?" He asked going over to Iggy's crate. He sighed making Iggy cry harder. 

"Oh Iggy. It's okay buddy," Jeb said, he unlocked the crate and held out his arms Iggy climbed into them and let Jeb change him into dry pants and clean his cage. 

"You need to sleep buddy. You have a bust schedule day tomorrow," He said. Iggy howled. 

"Jeb?" Fang said quietly. 

"You to?" Jeb asked kindly. 

"No. Almost," Fang said. Jeb unlocked Fang's cage and led him to the bathroom, he then came for me next. When I came back Fang was curled up but I knew he wasn't asleep. Iggy was curled on his side, with his legs against his chest, and his wings over his head but I could tell he was still crying. Jeb left and I to curled up ready to sleep. 

"Iggy," I said. "We're gonna get out," I said. Iggy's crying didn't stop. "Jeb said he'd take us to house. Just try to imagine it, maybe it's by the river and you can go fishing with Fang. Or maybe it's in the forest and you can make forts, or maybe it's in the meadow and you can run with a dog, or maybe it's in the mountains and you can fly with the hawks. Don't think about now Ig, think about the house. Someday soon we'll all be there. All together," I said. Iggy's cries slowed and came to stop and within 15 minutes he was asleep. I drifted into a dreamless, restless sleep soon after that.


	4. Chapter 4

I didn't sleep well that night, I didn't know why. I stirred and opened my eyes staring into the darkness. There was nothing there, but something felt wrong. I couldn't quite pin point what it was but something was off. With a sigh a pressed my back against the side of my cage, my back was facing Fang's cage. I heard him stir and then felt warmth as he moved closer to me against the bars. I closed my eyes again but didn't drift into sleep immediately. When I did it was restless and dreamless it was as if I knew something very bad would happen tomorrow.

******  
I heard the hiss of the door opening but I stayed curled on the bottom of my crate as if I thought that if I didn't move they'd leave, leave us alone. But of course I was wrong. It was only Jeb. I finally sat up and blinked up at him.

"Come on guys, you have a busy day today," He said and lifted The Gasman's cage and placed it on top of a cart that he had pushed in. Gazzy whined in protest.

"Can we walk?" Fang asked. Jeb smiled at him.

"Sorry. But nope," He said and continued to place our cages onto the cart. Nudge was next, then Iggy, then Fang and finally me. He pushed us into the bright light of the lab, Fang grabbed my hand through the bars and I looked at him in surprise but his gaze was fixed ahead. Jeb led us down a long hallway lined with labs. Everything was white, and perfect. Perfectly clean glass, floors and walls so clean then shone brightly, white lab coats. White-coats passed Jeb and said good morning not so much as looking at us. Jeb pushed us into the large bathroom lined with bathtubs and lockers. An Eraser was changing into a new t-shirt and I noticed with a pang of sadness that his old shirt was splattered in blood. He nodded at Jeb as he ducked out the door and jogged down the hallway. Jeb closed and locked the door behind him, and then unlocked our cages. We stepped out and stretched our wings behind us happily.

"Dr. Marian Janssen is coming to check on us this afternoon. You guys will be tested, and you need to be presentable or we'll fail," Jeb explained. I didn't care if the school failed, maybe then we'd be free. In fact I hoped they failed their stupid test, I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed.

"Can I go first?" Nudge asked sweetly. When it came to bathing, she loved to go first I think it was because she liked it. I didn't know why she liked it, some stranger took off your clothes and poured water repeatedly over your head and fluffed your wings and then blow dried them causing the downy feathers to puff up and making me look like a baby penguin. It was degrading.

"No, you're all going at once. I don't have time to bathe all of you seperately, we're late already," Jeb explained. I sighed loudly, I didn't want to. And I could tell from Fang's face that he didn't either. "Sorry guys," He said. Fang crossed his arms over his chest and turned away from Jeb. Jeb sighed.

"Fang." He said, his voice hard. "I know, but you don't have a choice," He said lifting Fang up who cried out and slid his clothes of quickly and dropped him into the water. Fang cried out again, then he did it to all 4 of us. Jeb moved to Iggy first and squeezed shampoo into his hair. Iggy shook his head hard showering shampoo all over us and Jeb.

"Iggy!" Jeb yelled angrily, Iggy just laughed and beat the water with his wings splashing Jeb. Jeb looked angry now. "Iggy," He said his voice was hard and threatening now. Iggy stopped flapping his wings and looked up at Jeb with a smile. Jeb didn't smile as he washed Iggy's hair quickly followed by his wings. He did the same for all of us, none of us said anything. We knew that Jeb was mad now and that we shouldn't push him. Once finished he lifted all of us out and handed us clothes. We got dressed quickly and he blow dried our wings causing them to puff out and become very fluffy much to Fang's resentment.

"I look like a stuffed animal," He huffed flapping his fluffy wings angrily. I couldn't hide a chuckle he glared at me. Jeb opened our cages. The Gasman looked up at him pleadily.

"No! No! Please!" He begged, I was shocked Gazzy had never said a word before. But those sounded near perfect, I could tell Jeb was pretty amazed to. "No!" He cried and Jeb placed him gently inside.

"I'm sorry Gazzy," Jeb said. The Gasman began to cry as Jeb locked the door.

"No You're Not!" Iggy cried.

"Iggy!" Jeb cried now very angry.

"Not now Ig," I said, grabbing Iggy's shoulder. He looked at me and I could see the hurt in his eyes. "Not now," I almost pleaded. Iggy's face fell but he gave me a slight nod and crawled inside his crate. Nudge, Fang and I followed. Jeb didn't say anything as he wheeled us outside and back down hallways. White-coats milled around quickly, I could feel the anxiety in the air, they were nervous about seeing the Director.

"Listen," Jeb said, his voice was almost a whisper but sounded urgent. He had my attention. "I know you don't like it here," Jeb said.

"Understatement," Fang muttered from beside me.

"But you guys need to be good today. Just do what they say, and try. Don't be rude," He said. None of us said anything, Jeb say nothing else as he pushed us through the maze of lights. We were pushed outside to a large fenced in area, the sun beating warmly onto us, Fang opened his wings letting them bathe in the rare experience of the sunlight. and our crates were lined up along with many other experiments. Jeb stepped away and I could see him talking to a group of white-coats but I couldn't make out what they were saying.

"It's gonna be okay guys," I tried to reassure my flock, Gazzy was still crying and I wished more than anything that I could hold him, hug him, scratch his wings right where I knew he liked and promise everything was going to be okay but I couldn't because it wouldn't be okay. It would never be okay. I lifted my head and saw Ari looking at us, he was holding onto his father's pant leg lightly and looked worried. Feeling sad a looked away, and up at a new white coat. Authority seemed to radiate off her in waves, she was the Director, I knew without being told. She walked down the field, looking at all of us, her eyes scanning us it made me both angry and uncomfortable. I wasn't some zoo exhibit for her to watch. She stopped in front of Jeb's group, all of them turned and looked politely at her, they all seemed careful as if afraid that one wrong move could get them fired, which I guess if you think about it was probably true. She began to talk and I strained to hear her over the commotion. 

"Those 5 are beautiful specimans," She said, motioning with her head over to us. "There was another older one right? Blue wings? Intelligent too?" She questioned, I felt a pang in my chest, a picture of Icarus flashing before my eyes. 

"Yes. But there was an unfortunate accident, we were testing with him. Harmless really, just simple drills and he tried to escape, injured several of our staff we had no choice, we had to put him down," One of them lied, their faced masked with hurt though Max knew he didn't give two shits about Icarus. It made her angry, to angry for words. That wasn't what had happened, not at all. Icarus was brutally slaughtered, and she was 100% sure that the white-coats knew it. The Director said nothing, but acknowledged him with a curt nod. 

"Understandable, it's a shame really," She said. "What about the new one? The child?" She questioned. 

"Yes, a success, we were waiting to give her to the other 5 until she's slightly older. That way we could better track their behavior," The white-coat explained. 

"Good. Well I'm glad, things seem to be going smoothly here. If you'll excuse me, I must begin my inspection," The Director said turning away from the white-coats and began walking toward her. Even her walk screamed authority, a long powerful gait that proved she was better than anyone else here. If the school was a pack, she was it's alpha. She stopped at the edge of our line of cages and knelt down opening it and taking the child out not very gently. The kid couldn't have been more than 5, and was mixed with what looked like cat, he had a long tail above his pants, with fangs and spots on his skin. The Director began an inspection, opening his mouth and checking out his teeth, feeling his muscles and weight, marking something down on her notepad. A bunch of other things that took a whole of almost 15 minutes before moving to the next cage and repeating the steps.

She continued this for cage after cage until she reached the one to my right. A teen it looked like, almost 16 older than most here and mixed with a wolf. I actually knew him, we'd talked a could times. Dean. That was his name, I remembered He had furry ears on the top of his head, and a long fluffy wolf tail, with eyes to match, shining with anger. The Director knelt in front of his cage and yanked him out, Dean let out a long low growl resulting in a firm slap on the top of his head. Dean just growled again and snapped at the Director, I watched in amazement. She slapped him again, this time Dean let out a long, low, deep, dangerous growl before lunging and grabbing the Director's hand in his fangs biting hard I could see blood. She screamed and hit Dean again. Dean let go and broke into a sprint, hurtling toward the doors which were open and unguarded. The Director howled something, which I will remember forever, something cruel and heartless. 

"Kill it!" She screamed holding her bleeding hand. The white-coat to her left didn't hesitate to react before drawing a gun from inside his coat and aiming at a still sprinting Dean. It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds before the gun shot rang through the air, and Dean's body lurched before thudding to the ground, blood pooling underneath him, his now unseeing eyes still wide open and staring at the open door, he was so close. So close. A couple of feet. He almost made it, I thought to myself. He almost got away. Gazzy howled in fear, Iggy and Fang said nothing, just stared in awe. I could hear Nudge's muffled sobbing, I couldn't do anything. I was numb, I had just witnessed the death of a friend because the white-coats didn't get their way. I let out a howl of fury, how could they be so selfish? The Director turned in my direction at the sound and began to walk toward me. 

"Such a shame, did you know it?" She questioned, anger flared inside me but I answered her. 

"Yes," I said, trying to shove as much coldness into the words as I could. 

"It's not our fault don't be mad...." She stopped and looked at the small name tag tied to my cage. "Max," She finished. "He was the one trying to escape, we were only protecting ourselves," She said, I was sure then I had never been more angry in my life but again I kept it under tight control. "Max, that's a beautiful name," She concluded, unlatching my cage and dragging me out and to my feet. She forced my mouth open and I closed my eyes and concentrated on taking deep breaths to keep from biting down on her hand, so hard I could taste her blood. She would deserve it, I smiled to myself as I thought about her anger, and pain at how it would feel. Yes, she deserved it. She grabbed one of my wings and pulled it open to it's full span, I crossed my arms over my chest as she ran her hands through my feathers, muttering to herself. As soon as she let go, I snapped it back behind my back. She didn't deserve to see my wings. She conducted test after test, each one only succeeding in making me angrier. Finally she finished and shoved me back inside my cage. She went after Iggy next, doing the same tests. She forced his eye open and shined a small flashlight inside. 

"You must be able to see far correct?" She questioned, Iggy nodded curtly. "Good. That's good. I bet we can do better," She said, most likely to herself. "Riley!" She called, the white-coat jogged up and I recognized him as the one I had bit what felt like a long time ago. I smiled to myself, the first time i'd done that and I knew it wouldn't be the last. 

"Tomorrow, take them in to operating room 4-B. I'll get it ready for you tonight. Enhance their 'raptor vision' we need them to be able to see much better than we do. It's been 7 years since they were created, our tech had increased a lot. Is that understood?" She said, as she measured Iggy's beautiful gray/white wings. Riley nodded and wrote frantically on his note pad before walking inside. 

We'd been outside in the brilliant heat for several hours before we were finally wheeled back inside to the coolness of the school, back to our warehouse and placed back on our shelves. We lay in silence for a while before Nudge spoke up, her voice quiet. 

"Max? I'm scared, I don't want to be able to see better. I can see fine now," She promised, I sighed. 

"I know sweetie, I know," I said, because I did know. I was scared to, scared for the flock, scared for Ari, scared for me. The school wasn't what they thought they were, they thought they were helping us, helping the human race by creating species that weren't supposed to exist. That's not what they were doing at all, they were killing innocent kids because they got scared and made a mistake. I've seen them do it to two now, and who knew how many in the future. I was scared of them, and I had good reason. I went to sleep that night with dream haunted by visions of instead of Icarus on that track, Nudge or Fang. Gazzy or Iggy running and killed instead of Dean. My flock, instead of theirs. I woke up crying.


	5. Chapter 5

The White-coats came the next day. There were 3 of them, Jeb wasn't with them. One of them had a clip-board, they observed us as if we were exhibits in a zoo, which of course wasn't new to any of us, but that didn't mean we liked it. Then one of them came to Iggy's cage and unlocked, the reached inside and grabbed a thrashing Iggy. Iggy cried out and beat his wings trying to blind the scientists with a flurry of feathers. 

of the white-coats grabbed Iggy's wings and held them tightly behind his back making him cry out. I could see the muscles on the white-coat's arms ripple underneath the coat as he struggled to hold the wings that Iggy was struggling to move. Another white-coat grabbed his feet, stopping his frantic kicking. 

Another white-coat injected something in Iggy's arm making him cry out in anger. But the drug soon took effect and Iggy fell limp in the white-coat's arms. One of them slowly let go of his wings, ready to grab them if they started to flail again but Iggy was unconscious and his beautiful wings fell limp behind him. 

"Ig? Ig, Ig!" Gazzy cried anxiously, his small hand gripping the bars of his cage as we all watched helplessly as the carried Iggy away. I grabbed the bars of my cage and screeched in fury, i yanked on the bars trying to break them but of course, they didn't budge. 

"Max," Fang said, reaching his hand through the bars of his cage into mine as much as he could. "Max, they won't kill him, they need him, they need us, he'll be fine," 

"You don't know that!" I snapped, Fang recoiled. "You don't know that," I repeated, sliding down the side of my cage onto the floor. 

"Max, I do, one of them got mad at Ari and all he was doing was touching my wing, I don't know why, I don't care but they need us, they won't kill Iggy," Fang said, stroking my wing, which was the only thing he could reach. I took a deep breath and nodded, Fang was right, Iggy would be okay. We only needed to last a little bit longer and then Jeb would come and take us out of here, he had said so. 

"Ig? Ig, Ig!" Gazzy repeated, looking at the door. 

"He'll be okay Gaz," I said slowly. I sighed. "I Promise" 

*******

The last 4 hours have been the longest 4 hours of my life, we've all been waiting for Iggy. They never take us one at a time, they almost always take all of us out at once. That just makes us seem like Guinea Pigs, - like, yeah kids, come out of your cages and see the sunlight and let us stab you with drugs to see if they effect us, then you want a granola bar! - but we're not Guinea pigs, we're humans, we're people too. Anyway, Iggy had been gone almost 4 hours and all of us were beginning to freak out. When we heard the door open 4 heads flew around, watching carefully as a white-coat came inside and deposited a sleeping Iggy back into his cage, doing so surprisingly careful. The white-coat was a girl, I didn't think that the school had any girl employees. I watched carefully as she reached her hand inside and gently stroking Iggy's hair. 

"I'm sorry," She said so quietly any normal person wouldn't have heard it, but we weren't normal people, Fang and I both looked at each other. The white-coat stood and didn't look at any of us as she walked out of the room and closed the door. I looked at Iggy, he had a bandage around his head, covering his eyes, no blood had seeped through but that didn't mean anything. 

******

Iggy woke up little more than 15 minutes later, he screamed as he woke up, his hands flew to his bandage, he began to pull on it frantically. 

"Iggy!" I cried, "Iggy calm down, your going to hurt yourself!" I yelled. Iggy seemed to calm at the sound of my voice. He calmly reached behind his head and unwrapped the bandage, letting it fall to the floor. I looked at his eyes, they looked fine. 

"Max?" Iggy asked, an edge of panic evident in his voice. "Did I get it all, is it off?" He asked, his large blue eyes focused on me. I nodded. "Max?" He questioned. 

"Yeah Ig," I said slowly. 

"I can't see!" Iggy suddenly howled. "Everything's black!" He cried. "Max! I'm blind! They made me blind!"


	6. Chapter 6

They came the next day, there was only one white-coat this time and he went straight to Fang's cage. Fang, running on straight instinct scrambled to the very back of his cage. The white-coat was holding some sort of siringe in his hand, when he reached Fang's cage he grabbed Fang's arm and yanked him to the front. 

"Stop!" I screamed, grabbing the bars of my cage. I was suddenly confused, whenever they did experiments on us they always took us out of our cages, they never injected us with anything while we were around each other. The white-coat ignored me and went back to Fang. Fang was thrashing, trying to kick the white-coat's hand away. 

"Can you at least tell me what your doing?" I asked, trying to use my sweetest voice despite every instinct in my body telling me to scream and get out. The white-coat looked at me, clearly surprised. But he ignored me once more and plunged the needle into Fang's shoulder, Fang released a scream of fury and threw himself at the bars of the cage the second the white-coat let him go, his wings flapping in a fury of feathers, his teeth nashing, for a split-second I imagined an Eraser instead of Fang, but I soon realized what I was thinking and shoved the thought away. The white-coat began to write on a clipboard, clearly taking notes on Fang's behavior. 

The drug, or whatever it was that they had injected poor Fang with soon took effect and he backed away from the cage wall, the white-coat -his name tag read William - looked almost eager as he watched Fang, pen in hand. Fang soon grew pale and his legs gave out, he fell onto his stomach on the floor of his cage, he tried to get up but his arms shook and he was soon on the ground once more. 

"What did you do to him?!" I screeched, throwing myself at the wall of the cage. Fang had pulled himself very slowly up, he was now on all fours staring at the floor of his cage, his face deathly pale. 

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I repeated, hurling myself at the cage, making it rattle. Fang suddenly gagged and the tiny amount of food that was in his stomach fell onto the floor of his cage. Fang moaned. 

"This-This-This wasn't supposed to happen," The white-coat stammered, "He-he-he shouldn't have gotten sick," 

"GO GET SOMEONE THEN!" I screamed, William stared at me and then took of out the door, it slammed after him, but I could hear his hurried footsteps as they faded into the distance. I rushed to the edge of my cage, trying to reach out and touch Fang. He had fallen over again, this time he was unconcious. 

"Fang!? Fang!" I yelled, "Wake up! Wake up," My voice broke. I heard footsteps once more and 2 white-coats burst inside, Jeb was one of them, I saw panic written on both of thier faces. Jeb ran over, unlocking the cage and pulling Fang into his arms, holding him tightly, Fang didn't move. 

"What the hell did you inject into him?!" Jeb snarled, whirling on William. 

"Ad-adrenaline, pure, straight, adrenaline," William stammered, his face growing pale. 

"Adrenaline! You utter-moron! This speciman's been cooped inside his cage for days, these specimens require 3 to 4 thousand calories a day, right now, they're lucky if they get 2 thousand! They don't get near the proper amount of sunlight, let alone excercise! These specimans were created for a reason, you can't destory that reason by injecting them with whatever the hell you find laying around! God! You're lucky he's even still alive!" Jeb screamed, i'd never seen anyone that angry in my entire life. William seemed terrified, he did nothing, just stood there. Fang hung limply in Jeb's arms, his eyes closed and his breathing shaky. 

"What's you name?" Jeb asked, anger still blazed in his eyes but his voice sounded calmer. William didn't answer at first. 

"Wi-William Grey," He stammered. 

"Then what the hell are you doing down here anyway!?" Jeb screamed once more. "You were assigned to Eraser duty today! You were supposed to train them, prep them for tomorrow with Cedar!" 

"Cedar said he didn't need me, he assigned me to the avian-hybrids, he told me to inject number 5 with the 4th siringe, on the 3rd shelf, from freezer 8B." William explained.

"Cedar's been working here for a month, he doesn't have the authority to assign you to a different block, and you should know that, that freezer block is for emergencies only! If this specimen were dying, inject him with adrenaline as a last resort!" Jeb said, sighing angrily. Fang moaned in his arms, his small wings fluttered. 

"This is your last day, I can guarantee you that!" Jeb said, turning his back to William, and his face toward us. William said nothing but turned and walked slowly out. Jeb held Fang tightly. 

"I'm so sorry guys, I'm so sorry you had to see that," Jeb said, the worry evident on his face proved me that he loved us, I knew that he was only doing this because he had to, he didn't want to hurt us, he didn't want to make us fly until he literally dropped, he wanted to adopt us, he had said so, and I believed him, and I knew that the rest of us belived him to. 

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked, reaching toward the both of them, Jeb walked toward us and got down on his knees, allowing me to stroke Fang's wing gently. I felt tears slide down my face but I didn't bother wiping them off, I just needed Fang to be okay, I needed him to live and be okay.

"He should be Max," Jeb said gently petting Fang's long hair down. Fang slowly peeled open his eyes and looked up at me. 

"Max Max?" He asked slowly. 

"It's okay,"I said slowly. Jeb turned and opened the door to Fang's cage. 

"No! It's not okay!" Fang suddenly yelled. "Please Jeb, I'm tired of being in a cage! I want to be in the sky! I want to be with my Daddy! I want a Daddy!" Fang said beginning to cry, which was something that Fang, never, ever did. Jeb obviously knew that to, he pulled Fang back against his chest. 

"I know Fang, I know," Jeb said, I could sense the pity in his voice. Jeb then unlocked my cage door and gently set Fang inside. 

"He needs you Max," Jeb said, I nodded and brought into my arms, wrapping my wings around his shaking form, a large, warm, feathery embrace. Jeb said nothing as he left the room, locking the door behind him. 

I didn't say anything but I laid on my side pulling Fang tightly against me, he was still crying but he was beginning to calm. I could tell that Fang was embarrassed about crying so I didn't say anything, just held him close. I kissed the top of his forehead. It was nearly 10 minutes before Fang was snoring lightly in my arms, I shifted just slightly so my face was buried in Fang's soft downy feathers. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly in the darkness, several tears escaped and slid down my face, wetting Fang's beautiful feathers. I knew that the flock couldn't take this much longer, if Jeb was going to get us out of here, he needed to do it soon.


End file.
